GTX 980 SC good enough for 1440p?

[platonicpotato]

Hello, I've been thinking of buying a new monitor and I was wondering if my gtx 980 will be able to handle it. I play lots of games most of which are very demanding. Do you guys think i should go ahead and upgrade the monitor or do you think that the card can't handle it?

 

[loki1944]

The 980 was not only priced $200 above the 970 AND the 1060, but it doesn't even perform as well as either of them. It was a complete and utter waste of money and I wish I did some more research before i bought it. Anyways I decided to stick with what I have now because I definitely don't want to waste more money than I already have.

If your 980 is performing worse than a 970, then there may be something wrong with it.

Well i meant the 980 only performs about 10% better than the 970 according to some benchmarks.

Yeah, well that depends very much on what the clock speed is really; you can get lucky and get a 970 that comes close to a 980 with overclocking; generally the performance difference between the "mid-high" end cards (70/80s) the last few years haven't been exactly huge. I have a GTX 1070 in one of my travel computers, $450 when I bought it, trades blows with one of my $737 980Tis from 2015; just the way it goes. Aim center mass on the series if you want bang for buck. But like I said, GTX 980 is still a good card, and can still beat a 1060 depending on the game. Jarred Walton had a fairly comprehensive run of cards with reference 1060/980 included and the 980 came out on top; albeit barely: http://www.pcgamer.com/geforce-gtx-1060-review/.

I'll be honest with you though; 1440p isn't really that mind-blowing; I spend a lot of time overseas using my 17.3" laptop or a hotel TV for my monitor @1080p and I don't really notice the difference for the most part. If I personally had to choose between say, a GPU and a 1440p screen, the GPU would win every time. Just not that huge a deal. In fact I prefer a big 1080p TV (obviously one without real bad input lag); 40+ inches to a 27 inch 1440p screen. Reason I use 1440p monitors is for running surround; otherwise as a standalone thing I've been pretty non-plussed vs 1080p. Sure there's a slight difference, but it's nothing amazing.

I guess some people just cant tell a big difference. To me anything in 1080 above 24" looks like garbage. I can see a huge difference between 1080, 1440, and 4k and a huge difference between tn and ips..

It's not that there isn't a difference, it's that the difference isn't that big a deal. Does it look better? A little, not much. IPS and TN has pretty much zero to do with what's being discussed as far as resolution.

 

[chef7734]

The 980 was not only priced $200 above the 970 AND the 1060, but it doesn't even perform as well as either of them. It was a complete and utter waste of money and I wish I did some more research before i bought it. Anyways I decided to stick with what I have now because I definitely don't want to waste more money than I already have.

If your 980 is performing worse than a 970, then there may be something wrong with it.

Well i meant the 980 only performs about 10% better than the 970 according to some benchmarks.

Yeah, well that depends very much on what the clock speed is really; you can get lucky and get a 970 that comes close to a 980 with overclocking; generally the performance difference between the "mid-high" end cards (70/80s) the last few years haven't been exactly huge. I have a GTX 1070 in one of my travel computers, $450 when I bought it, trades blows with one of my $737 980Tis from 2015; just the way it goes. Aim center mass on the series if you want bang for buck. But like I said, GTX 980 is still a good card, and can still beat a 1060 depending on the game. Jarred Walton had a fairly comprehensive run of cards with reference 1060/980 included and the 980 came out on top; albeit barely: http://www.pcgamer.com/geforce-gtx-1060-review/.

I'll be honest with you though; 1440p isn't really that mind-blowing; I spend a lot of time overseas using my 17.3" laptop or a hotel TV for my monitor @1080p and I don't really notice the difference for the most part. If I personally had to choose between say, a GPU and a 1440p screen, the GPU would win every time. Just not that huge a deal. In fact I prefer a big 1080p TV (obviously one without real bad input lag); 40+ inches to a 27 inch 1440p screen. Reason I use 1440p monitors is for running surround; otherwise as a standalone thing I've been pretty non-plussed vs 1080p. Sure there's a slight difference, but it's nothing amazing.

I guess some people just cant tell a big difference. To me anything in 1080 above 24" looks like garbage. I can see a huge difference between 1080, 1440, and 4k and a huge difference between tn and ips..

It's not that there isn't a difference, it's that the difference isn't that big a deal. Does it look better? A little, not much. IPS and TN has pretty much zero to do with what's being discussed as far as resolution.

There may not be a big difference to you but to me and many people I know it is a huge difference. I was just bringing tn and ips into the mix saying that I also notice a huge difference. I have been around computers for a very long time and seen so much improvement over the several decades. I noticed a big improvement going from monocrome to vga and then when the trinitron came out it was pretty amazing. Then LCD was a huge step and the progression all the way up to where we are today.

But anyhow we digress. To the op. DO what you are comfortable with. Stick with 1080 if thats what you fell right to do. The majority of current games will handle 1440p at 50fps on ultra or at least high no problem minus a few problem childs. Heck I only get around 90fps in crysis 3 with my current setup maxed out at 1440p.

 

[loki1944]

The 980 was not only priced $200 above the 970 AND the 1060, but it doesn't even perform as well as either of them. It was a complete and utter waste of money and I wish I did some more research before i bought it. Anyways I decided to stick with what I have now because I definitely don't want to waste more money than I already have.

If your 980 is performing worse than a 970, then there may be something wrong with it.

Well i meant the 980 only performs about 10% better than the 970 according to some benchmarks.

Yeah, well that depends very much on what the clock speed is really; you can get lucky and get a 970 that comes close to a 980 with overclocking; generally the performance difference between the "mid-high" end cards (70/80s) the last few years haven't been exactly huge. I have a GTX 1070 in one of my travel computers, $450 when I bought it, trades blows with one of my $737 980Tis from 2015; just the way it goes. Aim center mass on the series if you want bang for buck. But like I said, GTX 980 is still a good card, and can still beat a 1060 depending on the game. Jarred Walton had a fairly comprehensive run of cards with reference 1060/980 included and the 980 came out on top; albeit barely: http://www.pcgamer.com/geforce-gtx-1060-review/.

I'll be honest with you though; 1440p isn't really that mind-blowing; I spend a lot of time overseas using my 17.3" laptop or a hotel TV for my monitor @1080p and I don't really notice the difference for the most part. If I personally had to choose between say, a GPU and a 1440p screen, the GPU would win every time. Just not that huge a deal. In fact I prefer a big 1080p TV (obviously one without real bad input lag); 40+ inches to a 27 inch 1440p screen. Reason I use 1440p monitors is for running surround; otherwise as a standalone thing I've been pretty non-plussed vs 1080p. Sure there's a slight difference, but it's nothing amazing.

I guess some people just cant tell a big difference. To me anything in 1080 above 24" looks like garbage. I can see a huge difference between 1080, 1440, and 4k and a huge difference between tn and ips..

It's not that there isn't a difference, it's that the difference isn't that big a deal. Does it look better? A little, not much. IPS and TN has pretty much zero to do with what's being discussed as far as resolution.

There may not be a big difference to you but to me and many people I know it is a huge difference. I was just bringing tn and ips into the mix saying that I also notice a huge difference. I have been around computers for a very long time and seen so much improvement over the several decades. I noticed a big improvement going from monocrome to vga and then when the trinitron came out it was pretty amazing. Then LCD was a huge step and the progression all the way up to where we are today.

But anyhow we digress. To the op. DO what you are comfortable with. Stick with 1080 if thats what you fell right to do. The majority of current games will handle 1440p at 50fps on ultra or at least high no problem minus a few problem childs. Heck I only get around 90fps in crysis 3 with my current setup maxed out at 1440p.

Well I still have a 1999 TV in action; still have my sega gamegear etc. 1440p is really not what I would ever deign to call a miraculous advancement from 1080p. And to put a finer point on 1080p/1440p; my friends, my brothers, etc. have all played on my rigs, to include my 1440p ones; not a single one has been awed by 1440p, let alone gone out and bought a 1440p monitor.

To the OP; you're not going to be thunderstruck by a 1440p monitor; while it will look a little nicer, it is definitely not worth it if money or performance is a concern.

 

[platonicpotato]

I think 1440p is only meant for people with 1080s or 980TIs. I have no business using a 1440p monitor with my shitty overpriced card. It would be fantastic and I would love if I could just buy a 1440p monitor now and use it, but i just can't do that without buying a new GPU too.

 

[loki1944]

I think 1440p is only meant for people with 1080s or 980TIs. I have no business using a 1440p monitor with my shitty overpriced card.

You really shouldn't be so hard on yourself. GTX 980 is still up there with a GTX 1060 or 390X, and while I won't disagree that all the cards in its bracket are overpriced, it's still solid. You could sell it and use that money towards a GTX 1070 though.

 

[chef7734]

I think 1440p is only meant for people with 1080s or 980TIs. I have no business using a 1440p monitor with my shitty overpriced card.

You really shouldn't be so hard on yourself. GTX 980 is still up there with a GTX 1060 or 390X, and while I won't disagree that all the cards in its bracket are overpriced, it's still solid. You could sell it and use that money towards a GTX 1070 though.

I agree with this very much, and the 1070 handles 1440 quite well if you ever decide to go that route in the future. The 1070 is an excellent card.

 

[platonicpotato]

I think 1440p is only meant for people with 1080s or 980TIs. I have no business using a 1440p monitor with my shitty overpriced card.

You really shouldn't be so hard on yourself. GTX 980 is still up there with a GTX 1060 or 390X, and while I won't disagree that all the cards in its bracket are overpriced, it's still solid. You could sell it and use that money towards a GTX 1070 though.

I remember trying to sell my gtx 680 2GB a few years ago since i just wasn't able to run games at decent settings because of the Vram requirements and I was barely able to sell it for 40% of the price that i bought it for. Having to sell that 680 for so cheap only about a year after I bought it felt so awful and now i'm going through a similar situation with the 980. I'm just tired of losing money and buying expensive cards that barely last me a year. I'll just stick with my bad investment this time and keep the 980 until i have to throw it in the bin.

 

[J_E_D_70]

If you go 27", 1440p w/ gsync you wont be bothered by slightly slower framerates. As stated, for shooters you can turn down settings or run 1080p (I do and it's great).

 

[chef7734]

How are you getting such little use out of your vid cards? I ran a GTX 580 from release till a few months ago with out any issues. Played most modern games at high on a 1080 monitor. Only a few games did I have to turn it down like metro last light to medium and home front revolution. I upgraded to my 1070s to go 1440 surround. Maybe it's not you GPU but other problems in your system.

 

[loki1944]

Yeah @1080p the GTX 980 should be great, trading blows with a GTX1060.

 

[platonicpotato]

Yeah @1080p the GTX 980 should be great, trading blows with a GTX1060.

Saying that the $500 980 is trading blows with the $200 1060 doesn't really make the 980 great. It makes it quite awful actually. Also saying that the 980 should be great @1080p doesn't mean anything either.

 

[loki1944]

Yeah @1080p the GTX 980 should be great, trading blows with a GTX1060.

Saying that the $500 980 is trading blows with the $200 1060 doesn't really make the 980 great. It makes it quite awful actually. Also saying that the 980 should be great @1080p doesn't mean anything either.

Rather a disingenuous comment, as they are from different generations, not dissimilar to 780Ti to 980 ($700 vs $549 MSRP) or a 980Ti to 1070 ($649 vs $379 MSRP) while each newer generation is cheaper while performing the same or slightly better than previous higher bracket cards, so it's really no surprise that 3 years on @1080p/1440p the lower high end (GTX 1060) matches and is cheaper than higher priced cards with equivalent performance from the previous two generations.

The fact the GTX 980 is great @1080p certainly means something if exploring current resolution to performance viability, which is where the 780Ti and 1060 both currently perform feasibly as well.

Also GTX 1060 MSRP is not $200, it's $250 for the model competing with the 780Ti/980; the $200 is the 3GB variant, which performs a notch less than the 6GB variant http://www.pcgamer.com/gtx-1050-ti-review/. And since the 980 and 1060 6GB are practically equivalent, it renders the 3GB 1060 rather a moot point, particularly considering the difference between the two 1060 models can be far more than the 5% advertised (6-7% more like, with up to 14%, 27% in certain games http://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/2604-gtx-1060-3gb-vs-6gb-benchmark-review/page-5).

As to relevancy to the OP stands, he has a card that is currently great for 1080p, but like the 780Ti and 1060 6GB will sometimes struggle at 1440p.

 

[chef7734]

If this bothers you that much, then you need to get another hobby or look into console gaming. Technology in computer video cards moves fairly quickly. You have to be able to accept they are huge investments marginal returns as 6 months to a year from the time you buy the next bigger and badder card will be out. You either upgrade to the new card or accept and live with the card you have and realize it is still a decent card and get your money out of it by using it for several years.
You have a great card for your current setup and although not at max settings at 1440 on all titles , would do fine with most.

 

[platonicpotato]

If this bothers you that much, then you need to get another hobby.

Way ahead of you.